The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Osteospermum plant, botanically known as Osteospermum ecklonis, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Sunny Xita’.
The new Osteospermum is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Odense, Denmark. The objective of the program is to create and develop new Osteospermum cultivars with compact and uniformly mounded plant habit, freely flowering habit and attractive inflorescence coloration.
The new Osteospermum originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor in May, 2004 of the Osteospermum ecklonis cultivar Sunny Serena, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 15,693, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis identified as code number 20.001.02, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Osteospermum was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Odense, Denmark in June 2005.
Asexual reproduction of the new Osteospermum by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Odense, Denmark since January, 2007, has shown that the unique features of this new Osteospermum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.